blake johnson

Dear Microsoft Xbox 360 Team,

Previously I could only play MP3 and WMA format audio files on my XBox 360. This was very frustrating to me since I switched several years ago to encoding new tracks in AAC format (it gives better quality at lower bitrates than MP3). The end result was that I preferred to listen to music while sitting at my computer instead of while sitting on my couch.

Then you released the “new xbox experience” and provided an “optional media update” which added support for a host of additional audio and video formats (including AAC!). I was pleased. You didn’t yet allow me to play DRM’d songs from the iTunes Music Store, but that was understandable because Apple was refusing to license Fairplay to anyone. Still, I was content.

Then Apple starting selling songs without DRM. Now, I could play these songs with your own Windows Media Player, but my Xbox would not play them. I was no longer content. It was pointed out that this may because Apple writes the headers a little differently for purchased vs. non-purchased songs. But the fact that the Xbox cannot handle this small difference is rather remarkable.

I am sure you all know how to fix this. So, please… just do it already.

Thanks,
Blake Johnson

This has apparently been around for quite a while now (I’m a bit behind the times, ok?), but The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs is hilariously funny. Check it out.

Apparently the author of the blog is going to reveal himself in the next week or two.

Source: worth1000.com

So much for Apple making higher quality computers… I have had more hardware issues with my iBook G4 than any other laptop I’ve owned. Six months ago some piece of the internal power supply went bad so that the computer no longer charged its battery, just last month the airport card stopped working unless I could literally reach out and touch the access point from where I was sitting, then today, I’m browsing the internet, I hear a pop, and the backlight of the LCD screen completely turns off!? Luckily, these last two problems were fixable— my airport card is working again after taking it out and reseating it, and the screen came back to life after a hard reboot.

But, the damage has been done. I can no longer hold onto the fantasy that somehow Apple makes products with fewer problems then Dell, Sony, etc.

I am becoming a bit nervous about Apple’s future. They are sitting on some great products, but I’m not sure that Apple’s current strategy is in its best long-term interests. My particular concern is with Apple’s unwillingness to liscense their DRM technology to other device manufacturers. I love the AAC codec and I love the iTunes Music store… but the music industry has too much power to be limited to a single distributer. There is a lot of music out there which is not available through iTunes, and if people cannot get the music they want from iTunes, and when cheap and good alternatives to the iPod exist, people will drift away from Apple’s iPod/iTunes music platform.

I am fully aware that the iPod is the best-selling portable music player currently on the market, and that Apple is reaching out to those that cannot afford an iPod with the iPod Shuffle, but I think pretty soon Apple is going to have to open up the AAC format to other distributers, or else risk eroding it’s market share.